Glass Houses
by LaneWolf
Summary: LL Lorelai and Luke talk on their way home from the wedding. Lorelai reels after seeing what we've all known all along. Chapter 4 up!
1. Who's Throwing Stones?

Glass Houses  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Who's Throwing Stones?  
  
Lorelai wasn't quiet sure what woke her up until she heard it again. Clink. Then again. Clink. She shook her head and looked toward the window where the noise seemed to be coming from and frowned. "Dreaming," she murmured aloud. "And hey it could be Brad Pitt on the lawn throwing rocks and who would want to miss that dream?" She thought throwing back the covers and shuffling to the window. There stood Jason, suit and all tossing tiny pebbles at her window. She shook her head and tugged the window up. "What on earth are you doing?"  
  
"Well, I figured this was a little more romantic than calling at 1 am."  
  
"OK so far."  
  
"Can we have lunch tomorrow?"  
  
"Better, but lunch isn't really a good time for me tomorrow. Dinner?"  
  
"Yeah, sounds good." Lorelai smiled at him. "Pick me up here at 7."  
  
"All right." He said hesitating at the mischievous nature of her grin. "What are you up to?"  
  
"Nothing...I'll see you tonight." She said taking a meaningful, pointed glance at the pink Hello Kitty clock on her nightstand.  
  
"See you then." Jason started to walk away, but turned around just as Lorelai pulled at the window. "Lorelai?"  
  
"Jason?" she returned.  
  
"I think I might love you." He said with an odd look on his face. One that in her shock Lorelai couldn't place. It was either fear or joy—she wasn't sure which she was hoping for. 


	2. Friends, Love and the Really Hard Stuff ...

A/N: I am returning to Gilmore Girls From a long absence. So if my timing a characters seem off that is probably why...Stupid cable company... moved and no more GG! A really sweet friend is tivo-ing the eps for me....Bless you LV.  
  
Chapter 2: Friends, Love and the Really Hard Stuff part 1  
  
There was tension from the moment Jason picked her up because of his semi-declaration of love. The couple just seemed to be off kilter all morning, and Lane and Caesar almost got whiplash from the speed of Luke's mood swing. The divorce papers being signed and off to be filed had done him a world of good, but now suddenly he was a beast again, snapping at Lane and ordering Caesar around. He couldn't even be civil to Lorelai. That was when Lane threw in the towel. She walked up to Luke and dragged him into the pantry.  
  
"Listen, Luke. I know that you've had it rough the last few weeks, but I need you to stop biting people's heads off or you're going to scare all the customers—including but not limited to Lorelai Gilmore—away. That must stop—I need this job and you must have customers in order to pay me—understand?" Lane rumbled only stopping to breathe once.  
  
"Got it. Sorry, Lane. Have dinner on me okay?" Luke said calmly looking the young girl in the face. He's just so sad. Lane thought and she slapped his shoulder.  
  
"'Atta boy!" she smirked and for the first time since Lorelai came in he grinned.  
  
"Back to work, you." He growled now back to his usual gruff self. When he walked into the diner he shook his head in Lorelai's direction and sighed. She'll never get it. He thought and took his mind off it by setting to polishing the counter for the second time that day.  
  
At their table Lorelai and Jason talked intently about her parents and their dating both of which suddenly seemed much more urgent.  
  
"I just don't know how to tell my mother... she'll think it's out of spite..." Lorelai trailed off.  
  
"It's not is it?" Jason asked only half joking.  
  
"No." she shot back at him a little too forcefully.  
  
"All right, if not spite—why?" he asked her perfectly serious.  
  
"Wait a minute, here, mister." She backpedaled quickly. "I'm not the one that brought the "L" word into this. That means I don't have to answer the tough questions—those are all yours."  
  
Luke stepped out of the kitchen to see the pair bent over the table intent on each other and he slid toward the door to his apartment and moved upstairs. When he got there he took out his gloves and taped his hands. Within minutes he was pounding out his anger and frustration on the bag.  
  
Meanwhile Lorelai gathered her things and looked around the diner to find him and say good-bye. When he was nowhere to be found she left with Jason and sighed. What's going on with Luke lately? She asked herself. It was not the dashing verbose Jason that preoccupied her thoughts on the drive back to the Dragonfly. Instead her mind returned again and again to the sullen and oft scowl lined face of Luke Danes. She closed her eyes and it the next moment Jason pulled into the Dragonfly Inn. When he leaned in to kiss her farewell he was offered her cheek and a distracted smile and wave.  
  
As she walked into the lobby to see builders and painters, she was already waiting for Rory to pick up her ringing cell phone. 


	3. Friends, Love and the Really Hard Stuff ...

A/N: All right cahpter three feels a little more true to the current nature ofthe characters. I haven't touched on Lane yet, but I'm gonna get there. The Elder Gilmores will also make a couple of appeareances. Enjoy!

And now on with the Show!

Chapter 3: Friends, Love and the Really Hard Stuff part 2  
  
"I wanna call him." Lorelai sighed.  
  
"No you don't. He's suing Grandpa." Rory replied sensibly.  
  
"And still with the wanting to call him." She heard Rory grumble over the line.  
  
"What about the wedding this weekend?" Rory asked trying earnestly to keep her mind off Jason.  
  
"Yeah, it ought to be fun."  
  
"You're going with Luke?"  
  
"Yeah, he asked, and I thought it would be fun." Rory could almost hear the shrug in her mother's voice and she sighed louder than she'd meant to. When will they get it?! She thought.  
  
"What?" Lorelai asked as soon as the sigh past Rory's lips.  
  
"Nothing." Rory tried to put her off.  
  
"That exasperated groan was not 'nothing.'" Lorelai said quickly. "I heard frustration and anxiety in that sigh."  
  
"Then your ears are better than mine." Rory said quickly then turned as Paris walked—really she more stalked—into the room. "I gotta go, Mom."  
  
"We are not done with this. I love you!" Lorelai shouted as she heard Rory putting down the phone. What was that sigh about? She thought again before she headed to the kitchen to forage for food. Tossing her hands up at the empty fridge she laid a hand on her grumbling stomach and looked the clock. "Early dinner at Luke's then drop by the Dragonfly and see if the air conditioning problem in 17 is fixed." She nodded at the empty house and pushed the play button on the stereo as the trotted up the stairs.  
  
Luke was putting the finishing touches on a new peach pie as she walked in. "Mmm, pie." She said before he could get it under the glass bell.  
  
"No. I just finished it. For tomorrow." He emphasized the future date.  
  
"Mmmm. Pie." Lorelai said mostly just to rib him.  
  
"Are you coming to the wedding?" He asked feeling a little apprehension about her answer.  
  
"Um, I think so." She paused and looked up at him. "I'm still going with you, right?"  
  
"Yeah." He nodded. "I mean—you still want to right?"  
  
"Yeah." She said slowly and looked up and raised a brow at him.  
  
"Okay, just checkin'." Luke said and turned to reach for the coffee pot.  
  
Lorelai shook her head and called to Luke, "Hey! Don't I get to order."  
  
"Yeah." He leaned on the counter and pulled out his order pad. "What'll it be?"  
  
"Cheeseburger, cheese fries, nachos with cheese, and red velvet cake with cream cheese icing."  
  
"Mmm-Hmm. How about the cheeseburger, regular fries, and a chocolate malt?"  
  
"How about Cheeseburger, fries, nachos with cheese and a chocolate malt?" she countered.  
  
Shaking his head Luke decided to bargain with her. "Let's try a Cheeseburger, cheese fries, and a chocolate malt."  
  
"Sounds like a winner!" Lorelai smiled up at him and when he smirked back at her, hear heart flipped over in her chest.  
  
"Huh." She said calmly and nonchalantly as he grinned at her.  
  
"What?" He asked still looking at her eyes, unable to tear his away.  
  
"Nothing." She said still not looking away or changing the subject.  
  
"All right." He said and nodded. He could give her some time to deal with it. He'd had a while to get used to the idea, even though it only really struck him three days ago and for the whole day you could have knocked him over with a feather.  
  
He smiled as he walked back to the kitchen and relayed her order to Caesar. This was going to be fun, he thought. Scraping at his ever present five o'clock shadow.  
  
Back in the dining room Lorelai went through her to do list for the hundredth time and scratched off two things she was sure Michel was handling at the Dragonfly. Thinking about what had just happened she dialed Rory's number.  
  
"You realize these things are not free, young lady." Rory's voice floated to Lorelai's ear.  
  
"Problem." Lorelai explained with one word.  
  
Then she relayed the entire even to Rory before Luke re-appeared and scowled her out of the diner. "Out with that thing." He pointed at her cell phone. "Or no pie." He threatened, and Lorelai all but ran out the front door.  
  
"The Pie Nazi." Lorelai stated in shock. "It flipped over the Pie Nazi, Rory. What is this?"  
  
"Mom. Slow down and relax. He's just Luke. I mean we are talking about Luke, right? "  
  
"Yes, Luke." She sadi sharply. "But I don't think you understand, Rory. I—I'm—"she stopped. "Insane." She said a moment later. "It's fine and I'll go to the wedding this weekend and take a breather form all the Inn craziness and the next time I see Luke this will no happen." She sounded more sure than she actually was. "Then I'll call Jason."  
  
"Who is the much more logical choice since he is in litigation with your father." Rory said.  
  
"Don't roll your eyes at me young lady." Lorelai scolded just as Rory did roll her eyes.  
  
"How do you know?" Rory sighed.  
  
"Your eyes give you away." Lorelai answered cryptically.  
  
"Okay. Mom, I love you, and this—whatever it is—"Rory had her own suspicions as to what had her mother in a tizzy. "It'll work out for the best."  
  
"Right, right. Thanks, honey. Now I have to go back in there and get my pie. Bye."  
  
"Bye." Rory echoed shaking her head at the young man who'd just witnessed the entire phone call. "My mother. She's wonderful, and only mildly eccentric." She said with a smile.  
  
He looked down at Rory and grinned, "Aren't all mothers a little crazy."  
  
"I guess so." Rory smiled back and took his hand when he offered it. "So, Adam, shall we knock this paper out and get some coffee?"  
  
"Yeah," he nodded. "That sounds like a plan."  
  
Meanwhile Lorelai went back to her pie and her to do list. Item number 5 caught her attention, and now she laid her head down and nearly screamed, but settled for a low growl instead. Kirk, still sitting at the new table Lorelai had discovered for him slid toward the back to find Luke.  
  
"I don't know." Kirk was saying as he and Luke rounded the corner from the kitchen. "She's just repeating—'Raisins' over and over... She a case, man."  
  
"Oh, Kirk, you are not one to talk."  
  
"I freely admit that I'm nuts I have never hidden or denied my eccentricities."  
  
"God knows we all wish you would sometimes." Luke threw back at Kirk as he laid a hand on Lorelai's back. "What's wrong?" He asked her. "With all the moaning and gnashing of teeth you might scare my customers away."  
  
"I'm a terrible friend." She moaned.  
  
"No, you're not. What makes you say that?"  
  
"I told Sookie two days ago that I would pick up fresh—"  
  
"Raisins." Luke supplied throwing a quick glance at Kirk.  
  
"Right." She said looking briefly up at him, confused. "Though I must ask how raisins can be fresh—they're dried up grapes. They by definition are not fresh. Anyway I forgot them yesterday and we argued about it and she said that I was caught up in all my own stuff and didn't care about anyone else's stuff and now I realize that she was right and I am totally self- centered and horrible. I want to go home, curl up in a ball and die." She finished and put her head down on the table again. Luke rolled his eyes and jimmied his ever-present ball cap up and down on his forehead before he spoke.  
  
"Breathe Lorelai." Luke reminded her, and she took a deep shuddering breath.  
  
"Luke, this Inn is driving me crazy. I'm letting everyone down. I screw something up at least once an hour. How am I going to do this?" She looked up at him, tears shining in her eyes. He dropped to a knee at her side and pulled the curtain of long, soft hair out of her face. "Lorelai, it's a big project you guys are wrapping up. Everyone is stressed. Listen, I said it before I'll say it again: you need a break. Liz's Wedding ought to be nothing if not fun and silly. Just hold out 'til then and—"he stopped as he rose and put her arms around his shoulders.  
  
"Thank you, Luke. You are the absolute best." She said her voice still hoarse with tears and pulled back to lay a friendly kiss on his cheek. The bell above the door jangled and Luke didn't even notice it. He did however notice the quiet murmur running through the diner. Aware that he would be swamped with questions the minute she left Luke walked her to the door and smiled after her for moment before turning around to face the music. 


	4. About Time

A/N: Okay We're off the page now, but I am going to use the events of "Last week Fights, This Week Tights" because they pretty well fit in with my story. We'll pick up with Luke walking Lorelai home.  
  
Chapter 4: About time  
  
Under the watchful eyes of Miss Patty and Sookie, Luke took Lorelai' s hand and lead her away from the dissipating crowd in the Town Square. She turned and looked at Babbette. "About time." They women nodded and dissolved into laughter.  
  
"Liz is happy and Jess was great today." Lorelai said enjoying the view of the town lay out before her.  
  
"She is happy." He paused before speaking of Jess, always a sore subject with Lorelai, he didn't want to break the mood, but he sucked in a breath and burned that bridge. "He's really trying."  
  
"I can tell." She nodded and turned to look at him as they walked. "He's a good kid at heart isn't he?" She asked Luke earnestly.  
  
Luke looked down at her, and caught sight of their hands intertwined. "He is. He's making a try at bettering himself. I'm proud of him."  
  
"You did that, Luke." She smiled as she turned back the path ahead of them. Her house was approaching quickly; she slowed her steps. "You let him know that you thought he was important and capable and good. You made him realize he was worth something. It's an amazing gift, Luke."  
  
"He's my nephew." Luke shrugged uncomfortable with the praise.  
  
"And you'd do it for anyone. Like that kid you hired that everybody hated, you defended him –"  
  
"Then I fired him."  
  
"To save your business. You gave him a million chances. Then there's Lane."  
  
"She's a good kid, she's smart, she's strong willed, and brave. She deserves a break. I hate that Mrs. Kim is punishing her for going after her dreams."  
  
"That is it exactly. Supportive, and lovable." Lorelai said as they stopped at he stairs. She turned to him and smiled. "This was fun." She said.  
  
"It was." He nodded as she started to walk to the door. "We should do it again sometime." He shook his head. It was coming out wrong again. Take eloquent off his list of charms. "Not the wedding," he sputtered, "but the fun part." He took a deep breath. "Maybe a movie?"  
  
"Wha—?" Lorelai stared confused.  
  
"Saturday?" He started and they said in unison. "The Inn." They smiled.  
  
"Sunday, then." Luke said with a nod. "You'll need a break. I'll pick you up here around 7." She nodded and sputtered an answer, and Stared incredulously as he walked away.  
  
"Am I dating Luke?" she asked herself as she slid the key into the door. She called Rory but there was no answer. Sookie was still at the wedding so she sat without turning the lights on thinking about the good and the bad in her relationship with Luke. "Hmm." She said cryptically after about an hour. "Hmmm."  
  
She was speechless and she was a little scared. 


	5. Rory on a Wire

A/N: Things will start to veer away from what actually happened in the show and where I think things will go eventually. I still have not edited the first chapters of this story and will go back eventually, but I need to get the idea "down on paper" first.  
  
Chapter 5: Rory on a Wire  
  
Lorelai thought back over the day as she tossed and turned trying to sleep without worrying about Rory and Dean, The Dragonfly's official opening, her parents, Jason and not surprisingly Luke. He invaded her thoughts constantly now. She sighed as she heard the doors slamming below her and rolled again look for comfort in her bed. Since Rory's encounter with Dean Lorelai's relationship with her daughter had been strained to say the least. Rory still got up in the middle of the night and Lorelai could hear her washing dishes, doing laundry and every now and the Lorelai would hear her daughter breakdown. Her muffled sobs tore at Lorelai's heart. Lorelai knew Rory was dealing with what she had done and knew that her presence would only make dealing with wronging herself harder, but tonight the cries were so broken and harsh Lorelai couldn't bear to hear anymore. Finding Rory sitting with her head in her hands and basket of warm laundry beside Lorelai sighed. "Honey." She said as she laid a hand on Rory's back.  
  
"Why, Mom?" She looked up at Lorelai her eyes puffy and red. "Why did I do this to myself? Do you know that I never think about that night with out knowing it was wrong and knowing whether Lindsey and Dean get a divorce, we--her husband and I--cheated on her. Whether it's over or not she'd be heartbroken. Why, Mom?"  
  
"Baby, this has been going on for almost three weeks now. You can't do this to yourself everyday." Lorelai wrapped an arm around her little girl. "Yes, what you did was wrong, yes, Dean shouldn't have instigated it, and you should have stopped it, but it is over, Rory. Have you talked to Dean?" Rory shook her head mutely. "Has he moved out?" Rory shook her head as a fresh wave of sobs racked her body. "Okay, honey. Here's what we're going to do. You and I are going to pack up and get out of town tonight. I'll call Michele and Sookie, they can handle the Inn for a couple of days. We need to get away from all this for a while." Rory shook her head and took a steadying breath.  
  
"You can't." Rory said quietly. "Luke's coming back tomorrow." Lorelai smiled at her; Rory always thought of other which is why her night with Dean had been such a shock for Lorelai.  
  
"I'll call him. We've been talking a lot lately. He'll understand." Rory face went suddenly pale.  
  
"He doesn't know?" she asked scared and embarrassed by what Luke might think of her if he knew. Lorelai caught the embarrassed flush that crept into Rory's face.  
  
"No, of course not. And relax, I think Dean would have to worry about Luke beating him senseless if anyone ever finds out."  
  
"How is Liz?" Rory asked.  
  
"She's better." Lorelai sighed. "The accident happened so fast and she couldn't take care of herself while the new hubby was out of town." Rory took the hand her mother offered to help her up. Perhaps they could mend the fences after all Rory thought. "You've missed him." Rory accused.  
  
"A little." Lorelai countered, and threw her hand up in defense, "Really it's just the coffee. He makes really good coffee."  
  
"And he can waltz." Rory joked. Lorelai smiled up at her. The tension melted a little as they stood on the stairs. Lorelai started to head back up to her room. But stopped as Rory called her. "Mom?" she asked tears in her voice again. "I'm sorry I disappointed you so much. I love you."  
  
Lorelai descended the stairs and held her daughter. "I love you, too, Rory. It'll get better. We'll make it through this together." 


End file.
